Chapter 33: Sir, Times Have Changed

The boomerang flew through the air, making a stylish arc, and successfully beheaded one of the bandits before returning to hover above Chu Sang’s palm.

Chu Sang was quite pleased with the wind-breaking rune’s performance; its tracking effect was superb. The boomerang was merely an ordinary magical tool, yet its power was nearly on par with a spiritual weapon, slicing through heads as easily as cutting through butter.

“Who are you? How dare you block our way? Do you know who we are? We’re disciples of the Myriad Death Sect!” the bandits shouted, hastily drawing their swords and eyeing the newcomers with hostility.

“Myriad Death Sect?” Chu Sang nudged Tantai Ming’s arm. “Never heard of them. Why does the name sound like some evil cult?”

He snorted coldly. “Doesn’t matter if it’s the Myriad Death Sect or the Ten Thousand Life Sect—if they dare to rob disciples of Lingqing Sect, they’ll be eradicated, no matter how far!”

“A bunch of arrogant brats, spouting nonsense. You have no idea who you’re dealing with!” the bandit leader shouted, drawing a large nine-ringed saber and releasing his overwhelming Golden Core stage pressure as he charged towards them like an arrow.

Tantai Ming wasted no words, raising his sword to meet him head-on. The two sides clashed fiercely, with Tantai Ming taking on ten opponents at once and growing more excited as he fought. His sword moved so fast it seemed to leave only afterimages behind.

He had been stuck at the Foundation Establishment stage for ten years. Ever since his junior sister joined their sect, his cultivation had advanced rapidly. Now, he was on the verge of yet another breakthrough.

The underlings couldn’t last more than three moves under his sword. Only the bandit leader was capable of putting up a fight against him.

One was at the early Golden Core stage, while the other was at the peak of early Golden Core, nearly equivalent to mid-stage Golden Core.

Their battle was deadlocked, with waves of explosive spiritual energy erupting from their strikes, preventing anyone else from approaching.

Aside from the tricky leader, the remaining twenty or thirty bandits were all merely at the Foundation Establishment stage.

Wenren Yue’s red cords and golden bells tied around her wrists and ankles rang softly, even though there was no wind. Her movements were strange and elusive, turning into a blur before vanishing completely.

The sound of the bells grew louder, echoing from all directions, as if accompanied by the roar of countless wild beasts.

The ground trembled, dust and rocks flew everywhere, and someone in the crowd shouted, “Not good! Beasts!”

From the nearby forest, dozens of demon beasts charged at them like mad. Among them were more than a dozen second-tier Red-Fanged Boars, which were equivalent in strength to human Foundation Establishment cultivators. These demon beasts had terrifying offensive power, and their defence was equally formidable—a real headache!

“Think you can escape?” Wenren Yue sat casually on the back of one of the demon beasts, swaying her slender legs with a light smile. With a flick of her wrist, the four sets of red cords and golden bells emitted a sharp, rain-like clattering sound.

The sound wasn’t just an ordinary jingle. It carried an unsettling, eerie undertone that was hard to describe.

The demon beasts became even more frenzied and charged at the bandits with increasing ferocity.

Panic set in among the bandits. They scattered in every direction, fleeing for their lives, leaving the scene in utter chaos.

A few loyal bandits stayed behind, realizing the battlefield was in disarray. They redirected their attention to Chu Sang and her companions.

A female cultivator in the Foundation Establishment stage wasn’t a real threat. The remaining two might be in the Golden Core stage, but one was a pill cultivator, and the other a weapon cultivator—neither was particularly skilled in combat. They were about as dangerous as a Qi Condensation stage fighter in a real battle.

“I don’t like being around people, so kindly keep your distance.”

Seeing a burly man rushing toward him, Su Chen’an casually flicked his folding fan, sending dozens of plum blossom needles flying and turning the man into a pincushion.

“Run! Go… go after the other one!”

The bandits hadn’t expected this man to be hiding so many concealed weapons on him. Cursing him as a freak, they turned their focus on Mu Chihui.

Pill cultivators were notoriously weak in combat. Surely they wouldn’t have gotten this one wrong?

“Don’t come near me!” Mu Chihui ‘s face was a mask of terror, but just as the bandits got close, a sly grin tugged at the corners of his lips.

With a flick of his fingers, he tossed out eight small vials, scattering a cloud of white powder.

He had been bored recently, so he’d been busy concocting all sorts of new poisons. Tantai Ming had been his victim too many times to fall for it anymore.

Just as he was lamenting about finding a new test subject, this group had delivered themselves right to his door. It was too amusing.

“Aaah! So itchy, I can’t stop itching…”

“It burns! It’s like I’m on fire! Aaaah—so cold!”

“My eyes! I can’t see anything!”

“Aaaaah!”

The bandits rolled on the ground, wailing miserably, their screams filling the air like a cacophony of tortured souls.

On the other side, Tantai Ming struck the bandit leader with his sword, sending him crashing into a stone wall.

The impact shattered the rocks, tearing into the leader’s flesh. He spat out a mouthful of blood and staggered out of the rubble, blood-soaked and utterly pitiful.

“You’ve forced my hand!” His eyes bulged with rage as he pulled out a small bottle from who-knows-where and drank it in one gulp.

“Ugh…”

The next second, a guttural growl like that of a wild beast erupted from his throat. His body turned bright red, swelling rapidly as his muscles bulged, hardening like stones.

The pressure around him surged, skyrocketing as his cultivation broke through from the peak of early Golden Core to mid-stage Golden Core, and then from mid-stage to the late Golden Core stage. Finally, he stopped just short of reaching the peak of the late Golden Core stage!

Tantai Ming’s eyes widened in shock. The gap between early and late Golden Core was enormous, and the man’s speed left him no time to react.

The leader swung his massive saber down!

Chu Sang hurled her wind blade, striking the man’s arm. “Seventh Senior Brother, run!”

“Courting death! You damned ants, none of you will esca—”

*Slap!*

Before he could finish, a talisman slapped onto his face. “Keep it down. Don’t you know villains die from talking too much?”

“RAAAH!” The man was enraged beyond reason.

Chu Sang, with her agility, drew all his attention. He swung wildly at her, ignoring Su Chen’an completely as he passed.

Su Chen’an, “…”

“Junior sister, be careful!”

Tantai Ming wanted to rush in to help, but Mu Chihui stopped him with a hand, shaking his head. “Take a closer look at what our junior sister is doing.”

Tantai Ming finally noticed—although Chu Sang seemed to be fleeing in a panic, her movements were highly calculated. Despite the vast difference in their cultivation levels, the bandit leader couldn’t land a single blow on her.

And looking closely at her escape path… a formation?!

“Wait, is she… laying down a formation?!”

“Prison Formation, activate—”

As Chu Sang fled, she scattered talismans randomly along the way, none of them hitting the mark. The large man was about to mock her when, to his surprise, the girl stopped, and the formation sprang up like a giant net, trapping them both inside.

It turned out the talismans she had thrown were not for attack but to form a formation. Ninety-nine imprisoning talismans linked together, creating a formidable prison that firmly trapped the large man within.

He swung his blade heavily at the formation, only to be repelled forcefully, stumbling back several steps. His face contorted slightly, revealing a mixture of shock and anger.

“You think this lousy formation can trap me?” he sneered, his voice laced with disdain.

He sneered dismissively, “Don’t forget, you’re trapped in here too. If I can’t get out, neither can you!”

“I’m not planning to escape.” Chu Sang calmly reached for the pouch on her waist, her eyes gleaming with a hint of mischief.

The man’s entire body tensed, assuming she had some trump card up her sleeve. But what she pulled out was… a bizarre-looking weapon.

“Bluffing!” he exclaimed, his voice dripping with sarcasm.

“Let’s see whose weapon is faster, your sword or my gun?” Without hesitation, Chu Sang aimed the black barrel at him and pulled the trigger.

“Boom!”

A blast as powerful as a strike from a Golden Core cultivator erupted. The large man hadn’t even closed the distance when he was blasted several meters away.

What… what kind of weapon is this? Such terrifying power!

Not only was the man completely dumbfounded, but those watching from the sidelines were equally stunned.

Su Chen’an’s lips twitched. Even when he forged this weapon, he hadn’t imagined it would be used like this, or that it would have such overwhelming power.

Little Junior Sister… what in the world was she thinking?

He had initially thought their sect had finally recruited a somewhat normal Junior Sister, but now it seemed… she was even more peculiar.

“Brother, times have changed,” Chu Sang said with a smirk, blowing on the gun’s barrel. She didn’t give the man a chance to get up, unleashing another barrage of shots. The deafening explosions left the onlookers, including Tantai Ming, gritting their teeth in discomfort.

Was this formation set up not to trap the bandits, but to protect them?

The man coughed up a mouthful of blood, his meridians throbbing in pain, his face twisted in agony. “Blood Demon Illusion!”

His body instantly vanished, reappearing behind Chu Sang as he threw a fierce punch at her back.

Chu Sang had anticipated this. She bent backward, dodging the strike with a roll, and then swiftly aimed at his head, firing another shot.

The illusion shattered.

—It was a fake.

Eight more illusions lunged toward her.

Her eyes turned cold, her face single-mindedly cruel. She stuck a Speed Talisman and a Vajra Talisman on herself. In the brief intervals between dodging, each shot from her gun was a precise, head-exploding hit, with a perfect 100% accuracy rate.

“Sorry, but I’m an unstoppable war god.”

As soon as she said this, she fired a shot over her shoulder. Warm blood splattered as the bullet struck the man’s vital point.

The man behind her fell silent, collapsing to the ground, his eyes wide open in death, unwilling to accept his fate.

As the dust settled, Chu Sang leisurely walked out of the formation, her hands clasped behind her back. “I’m strong. I know.”

“…”

They had never seen anyone more arrogant than Little Junior Sister.

But it was undeniably cool!

The kidnappers lay on the ground, writhing in agony, barely alive. Sikou Qiu walked over and kicked one of them, her expression stern. “I told you to be polite to me. Now look what happened—no good will come of messing with me.”

After saying that, she approached the group, looking both surprised and delighted. “Fifth Brother, Third Sister, Sixth Brother, Seventh Brother, what are you all doing here? And who’s this girl…?”

“We got a distress signal from your father, so we came to rescue you. Her name’s Chu Sang, the new Junior Sister in our sect. She’s quite… formidable!” Wenren Yue said with a smile.

“So this is the new Junior Sister? She’s really… cute!” Sikou Qiu almost blurted out “scary.”

“Fourth Senior Sister, how did you end up getting captured by these bandits?” Chu Sang asked, her voice laced with concern.

“Captured by this bunch of riffraff? They don’t have the skill!” Sikou Qiu crossed her arms and snorted lightly. “I let them capture me on purpose! Who knew my dad would send out a distress signal and have you all come running.”

…She was captured on purpose?

Su Chen’an frowned, his expression puzzled. “What’s going on exactly?”

“This sect is called the Myriad Death Sect, a small but rising group that’s been wreaking havoc for the past few years. Ever since they arrived in Cloud City, children have been mysteriously disappearing.”

“In the past few months, the situation has gotten even worse!”

“In just three months, over a hundred children have gone missing. The mortal authorities were alerted, but their investigations led nowhere. I suspect this sect is behind it all, so I let myself get captured to infiltrate and investigate!” Sikou Qiu said angrily. “Though I don’t have solid evidence yet, I’m sure it’s them. I have to rescue those kids!”

Mu Chihui walked over to the bandit leader’s corpse, frowning. The large man, who had been so burly in life, now looked like a deflated balloon, rapidly withering into a dried-up husk.

Beside the corpse lay a small bottle.

Using a silk cloth, Mu Chihui picked it up and sniffed it carefully. “It’s Blood Refining Powder…”

“What’s that?” Chu Sang walked over, her curiosity piqued.

“It’s a forbidden drug that burns a person’s blood essence to temporarily boost their cultivation level. It was quite popular in demonic sects decades ago, but it was banned by the eight great immortal sects. I didn’t expect it to resurface after all these years.”

Tantai Ming growled in frustration. “No wonder that guy’s power spiked so much—he was doping!”

But the effects of the drug were unstable. If it weren’t for that, today’s battle would’ve been much harder to escape.

Just then, the pile of corpses shifted slightly, revealing a bandit who had been pretending to be dead, trying to sneak away. Tantai Ming’s eyes narrowed. “There’s still one alive.” He raised his sword to strike.

“Seventh Senior Brother, we’re supposed to be the good guys. We can’t just kill people without a second thought.”

Chu Sang stopped him and walked over to the trembling man. She squatted down, pressing her sword to his neck, her innocent face belying her deadly threat. “Big Brother, why don’t you show us the way? Otherwise, your head might have to find a new home.”

“…”

An hour later.

Chu Sang and her group arrived at the dungeon of the Myriad Death Sect.

They encountered guards along the way, but Chu Sang swiftly dealt with them, each shot to the head clean and ruthless, showing no mercy.

In Su Chen’an’s mind, the image of his gentle, sweet Junior Sister was thoroughly shattered.

The dungeon was damp and dark, with a foul stench of rot lingering in the air. Mu Chihui handed each of them a pill to block the smell.

The group walked deeper into the dungeon.

As they moved further in, the faint sounds of children crying became clearer.

Chu Sang ignited a small flame with her spiritual energy to light their path. Her steps quickened as she followed the weak sobs, eventually arriving at a large cell.

Inside, hundreds of children were locked up!

They were all emaciated, covered in filth, their bodies marked with scars both old and new. It was a heartbreaking sight.

According to Sikou Qiu’s earlier accounts, nearly two hundred children had gone missing in Cloud City over the years. It’s likely that the previous victims had…

But what were the Myriad Death Sect doing with these children?

“Don’t cry. We’re here to save you.”

Tantai Ming shattered the iron lock with a single slash, freeing the children who were barely clinging to life. Mu Chihui quickly administered pills to them. “Don’t be afraid. We’ll take you out of here and safely reunite you with your families.”

“Big Brother, Big Sister… thank you…”

The children suppressed their tears, not wanting to cause any trouble for their rescuers.

[Villains Tantai Ming, Mu Chihui, Su Chen’an, Sikou Qiu, and Wenren Yue’s corruption value -3. Host gains 15 attribute points to distribute!]

[You now have 15 unassigned points. Please choose your attributes to enhance.]

Chu Sang’s eyes flickered with realisation. She could earn attribute points not just by stopping her senior brothers and sisters from turning evil, but also by doing good deeds.